Don the Hero

Principle laughed as he saw their expressions change from happy little puppies to disappointed in a split second. The children quickly change their expression to an expressionless one. Mark and the others could not help but feel like their were emotions being toyed with by the old man.

Don stared at the old man suspiciously, he could not help but think that the principle was hiding something. In truth the most he was hiding was a wart in the back of his head.

The principle than said an enchantment and suddenly the place was full of orbs and weapons of all sizes and shapes. The teens were shocked again but this time, they were sure to keep their poker face. The principle smirked as he saw this. He had been doing this for so many decades yet it never got old.

"As I said before, you 11 will be awarded handsomely. Your prizes will be a set of Armor, 1 di or tri fay energy crystal and finally a mortal weapon of your choice." The children almost had a heart attack as their poker facade quickly shattered. They quickly started conversing with each other as they got really excited.

"Dude. D-did he say di-fay energy crystals? Those are pretty freaking pure man!" Drew said almost hyperventilating.

"A-a mortal weapon..." Even Vivian's usual cold persona was showing some cracks. Due to her father being a merchant, it was not difficult for him to buy her a crystal or two but to obtain a real mortal weapon in the merchant business is quite rare especially the type that suits her.

The Finch siblings could not even fathom the worth of the rewards they were being given. The set of armour which is considered the lesser of the 3 was already beyond what they could have ever gotten in their small town.

"Don't get to excited future colleges." Suddenly the crew heard the confident voice of Mark walking towards them. Maryline sneered at Mark as he approached the crew. The others on the other hand did not hold as much malice.

Don new from Elijah's injuries that he never caused permanent damage and Elijah only got so battened up because of his stubbornness. Drew had grown to acknowledge Mark's strength and insight and thought that he did not seem to be as hatful as he had expected. Elijah was not one to hold grudges too quickly and knew that Mark had not caused him any permanent harm. In fact, Mark had only showed him what he needed to improve on for the future. Vivian just did not care whether Mark was here or there but what he said peaked her interest.

"What do you mean?" Elijah was the first to ask.

"Well you see; this seems like quite a lot of rewards but is this all that there is? Seeing how he can make things appear and disappear at his will. It would not be hard to deduce that there are many more things in this place. It is just that we cannot see it. This is like giving a kid some crumbs and them wanting to have the cookie. After we get these rewards, we will want more... and that will make us work harder for it. Those who see what they could have gotten will also work twice as hard to try and catch up. This forces us to never relax." The group gasped as they heard this.

Don could not help but see the old man as even worse than before. Marlines frown softened as she heard this. 'This guy really know his stuff' she thought.

"Well what are you guys waiting for?!" Principle Cruise could not help but ask as he heard their vigorous conversation 'Just get your rewards and leave' thought the principle as he picked his ears. Mark who had made such a decisive observation had thought to far into it. It truly was just how the school rewarded students. You do good, you get rewarded. You do bad, tough luck.

Everyone did not wait a second and quickly went about, picking their weapons. They were all high level mortal weapons. Suddenly Mark was pulled back by Cruise when he was about to go weapon hunting.

"You, come here." Mark did not hesitate to follow as he was lead to a bunch of weapons on the side.

"These are low level Immortal weapons. Since you are first, you must have the best pick. Isn't that fair, prince?" Mark could not even reply to the old man as he saw the pile of treasures.

Weapons are separated into 3 ranks. Mortal, immortal and divine. Mortal ranges from F to D. F being low level mortal weapons and D being high level weapons. Immortal ranges from C to A and Divine weapons are beyond human logic and ranges from S to SSS. Mortal weapons are quite straight forward. They get stronger with every rank and are either infused with an element or are non specific. After reaching Immortal rank however, it becomes more complicated. There are 4 type of immortal weapon.

Cold weapons are like mortal weapons but just much...much stronger. Hot weapons need to be infused with fay energy for their true powers to be shown. Nature weapons can only be used by those with Variant energy as they can be unstable and finally Chaos weapons can only be used by martial artist who has awakened 2 or more elements. Weapons passed D rank are usually called these for types instead of Immortal weapons due to this.

Mark did not choose recklessly once he saw this. Mortal weapons are not too difficult to get since his great granduncle is a king but immortal weapons were not thrown around as easily to the younger generations.

After some thought, he finally chose a middle class sword with large vein like streaks. Its blade was as sharp as diamonds. The old man smiled as he saw what the boy picked.

"Ragnarok... I see. After seeing your performance, I am not shocked that you chose a nature weapon with a fire element...but to choose Ragnarok... faith must be toying with me this year." The last part of his sentence was so quiet that Mark could not make out what he said.

In the other side, Elijah had found a heavy class sword that fit with his style. It was a fire element weapon named the Flaming dragon... It definitely did not sound very harmonious...

Maryline had also already found a weapon that matched her hands on fighting style. A pair of Gauntlets inbound with a fire element ingrained in it. Both Gauntlet had a large jewel imbedded in them with the insignia of fire. They were called Valcanica. It definitely did not sound graceful… {A/N: Hello there again. Just wanted to say how much my hands itched to give her a hot weapon gauntlet that needed 6 fay energy crystals to power it. I decided to stop myself...but maybe in the future...}

Vivian was staring at her weapon intently. Being the daughter of a merchant, she had instantly ran to the staff that suited her the best. Luckily she had been fast since another person was also eyeing that staff. A bald teen whose face looked as peaceful as a monk. Vivian had remembered that his name was Lars Delavos. She had paid a lot of attention to him due to the fact that he had gotten 4th place without showing what element he possessed. He only used non specific magic which made it difficult to deduce.

Vivian admired her price which was an earth element staff named Rukarus. After nodded in satisfaction at her choice, she turned to the bald teen to see what he had decided on in the end. To her shock, the quality of the staff he picked was not lower than hers. 'It seems like monk boy knows more about staffs than I thought...' He had picked a nonspecific weapon named Rain blooms. Somehow the name seemed to fit his calm exterior.

"Hey Vivi! look at what I got!" Vivian turned around only to see a huge shield blocking the view of Drew. Vivian could not help but roll her eyes when she saw her friends disappointed face.

"awe...I thought you would be more excited. Come on, doesn't it look cool?" Vivian looked at Drew straight in the eyes and said,

"No." She then proceeded to walk away. Drew smiled as she walked away. 'Hehehe. Don't think I will fall for your ice queen persona. If you did not like it, with your background, I would have heard a lot of insults on how bad my taste is and how the weapon is not suitable for me. Since you did not say anything, I guess this means that you found it suitable for me. Hehehe' Drew only said this in his head of course. He knew that if he had said it out loud, he would not have heard the end of it.

Elijah came along and quickly approved of Drew's shield. It was an earth elemental weapon named wall of Zander. Unlike most of the name in the cave that had not much of a meaning, this weapon was very meaningful in the history book.

During the early dark ages, Minions of demons used to ravage towns and kill and pillage as they pleased. The poorer towns and cities were not able to protect themselves from them until one day, a mysterious blacksmith arrived in a very susceptible town and started to make these shields. The soldiers were happy to take them as the blacksmith sold them for free.

What the soldiers did not know was that it was reinforced with earth magic. It was the first time that such a technique had been used in a weapon lower than immortal level. The blacksmith had many students and freely passed on his manual for the weapon. This helped weaker soldier fight against the minions. The most famous case of the shield being used was in the city of Zander. It is said that the soldiers made a formation out of the shield and acted as a wall to shield the people from the demons. Since than the shield was called the wall of Zander.

Although the meaning behind it is quite powerful, many have forgotten about the tales of the past. As the saying goes.

"leave the dark time in the Dark ages." Only those who seek the knowledge of the past would remember the meaning behind the shield. Finally, everyone was done choosing. Well everyone except for one boy.

He in the pile of weapons that were somehow neatly arranged. He had been staring at the same weapon this whole time yet, he had not picked it up. He felt unnaturally drawn to the weapon and he did not know why. Maybe that was what scared him. The weapon was not a large viscous axe or a soothing archer.

Instead, it was quite an ordinary looking spear.